Sotheby's Readies June Sale of Modern Masterpieces

With all the attention being paid to the Impressionist and Modern art auctions in New York next week, it's hard to think ahead to the London sales in June.

Sotheby's would prefer that you didn't. Yet hanging on the walls of its 10th-floor galleries on York Avenue beginning on Thursday will be a familiar face: Jeanne Hébuterne, Modigliani's mistress and constant muse.

A news release announcing the London sales compares that portrait, "Jeanne Hébuterne (Wearing a Hat)," which goes up for sale in London on June 19, to another portrait of Hébuterne, "Jeanne Hébuterne (in Front of a Door)," which Sotheby's sold for a record $31.3 million in 2004. Curiously, it doesn't mention that "Jeanne Hébuterne (Wearing a Hat)" was on the cover of its sale catalog in May 1997 when it sold for $9.5 million. (Now it carries an estimate of $15 million to $20 million.)

The painting is part of a $100 million collection that Sotheby's will sell over the next year. While auction house experts won't identify the seller, those who are interested can go to www.msfinearts.com, the Web site of Marvin Schein, a manufacturer and distributor of generic drugs and medical products, who has been quietly collecting for years. In addition to paintings, he has been buying porcelains and French furniture.

"It's wonderful, elegant taste," said David Norman, director of Impressionist and Modern art for Sotheby's in New York. "It's a beautiful collection of American, 19th-century and Impressionist art."

In addition to the Modigliani, Sotheby's will auction an 1895 Degas, "After the Bath," which is expected to fetch $9 million to $12 million; a Bonnard street scene, "Place Clichy" (1906-7), estimated at $5 million to $7 million; and a 1901 Picasso, "The Racetrack at Auteuil," which Mr. Schein bought at Sotheby's in 1995 from a sale that featured works from the estate of Joseph H. Hazen, a New York philanthropist, lawyer and film producer. In 1995 Mr. Schein paid $2.3 million; now Sotheby's is hoping this racing scene will fetch $3 million to $4 million.

Some experts in the art world say Mr. Schein is selling his collection because his tastes have changed, and he periodically likes to begin collecting in different areas; others say the reason is a divorce.

Players in Met Podcasts

For decades the mellifluous tones of the Metropolitan Museum's director, Philippe de Montebello, on its Acoustiguides have made him the voice of the museum. But recently Mr. de Montebello has company, the likes of the punk rocker Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols or the actors Kevin Bacon and Sam Waterston.

In October, the Met produced its first podcast, inviting Mr. Bacon to read from van Gogh's letters. It was heard by about 16,000 people on iTunes and the Met's Web site (www.metmuseum.org) and even made the list of the 100-most-listened-to podcasts on iTunes.

What started as an experiment has blossomed into a serious continuing program. "It's an attempt to be accessible to all age groups in all media," said a Met spokeswoman, Elyse Topalian.

Now the podcasts include a conversation between the artist Kara Walker and the Met curator Gary Tinterow, discussing the inspiration for her Met show, on view through July 30. Readings by Mr. Waterston playing the role of Herbert E. Winlock, the archaeologist and Met curator who discovered and reassembled pieces of the ancient Egyptian sculptures of Hatshepsut in the 1920's, accompany "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh," on view through July 9. And for "AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion," which opens on Wednesday, the museum asked Johnny Rotten to read the lyrics of "God Save the Queen" and to give his perspective on England in the 1970's and the rise of punk and punk style.

That's not to say that Mr. de Montebello's voice has been forgotten. For those wanting a podcast for "Samuel Palmer (1805-1881): Vision and Landscape," which closes on May 29, the director can be heard reading poetry by Milton that inspired the artist.

And for Your Cell

The Brooklyn Museum is also updating its technological offerings. In May, for the rest of its exhibition "William Wegman: Funney/Strange," visitors can take an audio tour using their cellphones.

By dialing (408) 795-2177 and then selecting the three-digit object code that corresponds to an artwork in the show, visitors will be able to hear commentary from the artist. Instructions will be available at the museum's visitor center.

The cellphone tour is a first for Brooklyn, but other museums have experimented with it, including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Japanese American National Museum, both in Los Angeles; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington. The program is a joint initiative between the museums and a San Francisco-based company called Guide by Cell.

New Jewish Museum Hours

For the first time, the Jewish Museum will stay open on the Jewish Sabbath. From May 12 through Sept. 17, the duration of its show "Eva Hesse: Sculpture," it will not only be open on Saturdays but will also be free for all visitors on those days.

The show, which features the work of the Minimalist sculptor, who died of a brain tumor at 34 in 1970, will focus on her large-scale latex and fiberglass sculptures. It is the first major show of Hesse's sculpture in New York since 1972.

"Since our centennial year in 2004, we have been positioning the Jewish Museum as an art institution that wants to serve a wide audience," said Anne Scher, the museum's director of communications. "Spring and summer is a peak museumgoing time of the year, when New York typically gets a lot of tourists."

Bucksbaum Award Winner

The Los Angeles artist Mark Bradford is the winner of this year's Bucksbaum Award, given every two years to an emerging artist living and working in the United States whose work is in the Whitney Biennial. The award carries a $100,000 stipend, a residency and a solo exhibition at the Whitney.